Electronic commerce fundamentals ch4

Chapter 4 Electronic Commerce Software Electronic Commerce Objectives Desirable functions of E-commerce software and ISP-hosted solutions ◆ Types of traditional and electronic stores ◆ Software packages for small, medium, and large e-commerce sites ◆ Characteristics of several electronic commerce sites ◆ What kind of software solution is necessary for your needs? Range of pricing options, from almost nothing to more than $100,000 ◆ Factors that determine E-commerce software needs: ◆ ● ● ● ● Enterprise size and projected traffic & sales Budget Target commerce audience Technical ability, training, and equipment E-commerce Requirements ◆ All e-commerce solutions must provide at minimum: ● ● ● ● A catalog display Shopping cart capabilities Transaction processing Tools to modify and add to the store catalog and storefront display Catalog Display ◆ Definition: a static listing of goods and services ● Small storefronts (less than 35 items) can have minimum navigation and organization ● Large storefronts must categorize items, and provide several methods of finding items (i.e search engines) ● Rule: Never stand in the way of a customer who wants to purchase! Large Electronic Commerce Site Figure 4-1 Small Electronic Commerce Site Figure 4-2 Shopping cart ◆ Represents an improvement over forms-based shopping ● ● ◆ Forms were awkward and time-intensive Not user-friendly, confusing and error-prone Shopping carts ● ● ● ● Keeps track of items selected Items can be added or removed All item identification is stored automatically Running totals are kept Using a Form to Enter an Order Figure 4-3 How Shopping Carts Work ◆ The Web is a stateless system- unable to remember from one transmission to another ● Therefore, shopping carts must store information about each shopping cart, to avoid mixed-up purchases Methods used include: ◆ Cookies- stored information on a shopper’s hard drive ◆ Temporary numbers added to the end of a shopper’s URL 10 Editing a Yahoo!Store Storefront Page Figure 4-8 24 An Item’s Order Page Figure 4-9 25 Management, Reporting, and Site Settings Page Figure 4-10 26 Successful Store Builders and Hosting Services ◆ GeoShops ● Product of GeoCities ● Similar to Yahoo!Store ● Basic plans cost $25 ● Transactional Processing costs $100 monthly, plus 55 cents per-transaction fee, and a set-up fee of $195 ● No long-term contracts 27 GeoShops’ Home Page Figure 4-11 28 Successful Store Builders and Hosting Services ◆ ShopBuilder ● Credit card transactions ● Tracks sales trends ● Computes and graphs statistics Items sold ◆ Customers who visit ◆ ● Generates and sends receipts by e-mail ● $20 - $250 monthly fee, depending on number of items 29 ShopBuilder Web Page Sales Statistics Figure 4-12 30 Midrange Packages ◆ INTERSHOP Merchant Edition ● $5,000 package, providing over 50 storefront templates, set-up wizards, good catalog and data management tools ● Web-based store managing and editing ● Special notice goes to the inventory manager ◆ Tracks inventory levels, list of transactions, enters new products, discount rules 31 INTERSHOP Home Page Figure 4-13 32 Midrange Packages ◆ Net.Commerce Start ● Produced by IBM ● Costs $5,000 ● Scalable to grow as your company grows ● Site building wizards ● Accommodates electronic download products ● Requires some knowledge of JavaScript, Java, or C++ 33 Net.Commerce Home Page Figure 4-14 34 Midrange Packages ◆ Site Server Commerce Edition ● Published by Microsoft ● Site Foundation Wizard ● Store Builder Wizard ● Tools for the commerce cycles Engaging the customer ◆ Transacting an order ◆ Analyzing the sales information ◆ 35 Site Server Commerce Edition Home Page Figure 4-15 36 Enterprise Solutions for Large Firms IBM’s Net.Commerce Pro ◆ Netscape’s Netscape CommerceXpert ◆ Oracle’s Internet Commerce Server ◆ Intel & SAP’s Pandesic Web Business Solution ◆ 37 Large E-Business System Architecture Figure 4-16 38 ... of E -commerce software and ISP-hosted solutions ◆ Types of traditional and electronic stores ◆ Software packages for small, medium, and large e -commerce sites ◆ Characteristics of several electronic. .. Rule: Never stand in the way of a customer who wants to purchase! Large Electronic Commerce Site Figure 4-1 Small Electronic Commerce Site Figure 4-2 Shopping cart ◆ Represents an improvement over... accounting system to allow tallying of Web sales 11 An Electronic Commerce Shopping Cart Figure 4-4 12 E -commerce Tools ◆ Inexpensive hosted e -commerce solutions ● ● ◆ Can create a storefront in